Globalisation is driving more and more organisations into commercial partnerships in unfamiliar international markets, while new legislation and regulation increases the impetus for companies to not only understand who they are forming alliances or transacting with but also to demonstrate that they have fully considered the risks attached to them.

As the only Big Four firm to have a dedicated and fully resourced global Business Intelligence Services (BIS) practice, Deloitte makes an ideal partner for multinational companies who require a deep understanding of the risks attached to target companies or individuals, or the new market itself.

The BIS practice, with centres of excellence in London and New York and other teams located around in key jurisdictions around the world, consists of over 45 practitioners worldwide who are expert in integrity due diligence and other types of precautionary information and intelligence gathering.

Typically, we are engaged by our clients in two broad areas:

Assessing integrity and reputational risks associated with a partner or acquisition target

Our integrity due diligence services help our clients better understand their potential business partners, acquisition or alliance targets, potential customers and major investors. The scope of each assignment is determined both by the specific needs of the client and the planned relationship and our understanding and knowledge of the risks prevalent in the country or sector concerned. The information gathered will encompass a combination of that available on public records, gathered from our network of well-placed sources and formulated through our existing domain knowledge. While no two integrity due diligence assignments will be the same, our enquiries may include:

• the target’s business history, activities and reputation
• the track record of its principals
• the source of its initial capital
• its track record in other similar transactions
• the gain and maintenance of necessary governmental licenses and contracts
• the use (and misuse) of political influence
• conflicts of interest
• where relevant, links to organised crime.

Supporting clients in conflict resolution

Our information and intelligence gathering skills can also be a powerful tool in commercial conflict and dispute situations. Our work in this area – whilst consulting the same categories of information source – will instead focus on issues such as:

• the identification of assets held by a company or individual
• identifying and examining potentially conflicting commercial interests
• gaining a thorough understanding of the commercial modus operandi of an individual or company

Our services have been used by clients to assist in complex cases ranging from leaks of information and fraud investigations to alleged asset tunnelling.

Our in-house multilingual capability and extensive networks on the ground in each country enable us to operate throughout the world, particularly in developing markets where the reputation and integrity risks to investors can be more extensive – and damaging - than those in developed markets. Typical clients are multinational companies, investment banks and private equity houses.